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CS'n^KERN CANONS 
the GIANT FOREST 



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SOUTHERN PACIFIC 



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SOUTH BR N PACIFIC 



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T. I). McKay, General Passenger Agent San Francisco Overland Route, 4 Water Street, 
Yokohama. JapaiL 



Kings and Rern Canyons 

and the Giant Forest 

of 

California 



By A. J. WELLS 




San Francisco 

1906 



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By Transfer. 



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KINGS RIVER CANYON 



This great gorge is on the South Fork of the Kings River, in 
the Sierra Nevada Alountains, about lOO miles southeast ui 
Yosemite Valley. John Muir has called it "a second Yosemite," 
and Professor J. D. Whitney said of it that "it strongly resem- 
bles Yosemite in some of its grand features." I went to see it 
with some misgivings, unwilling to admit that the glorious Valley 
had a rival, but, climbing down the steep trail which leads to 
the foot of the canyon, its bea-uty and grandeur grew upon me, 
and when I had ridden to camp between its towering granite 
walls and beside its silvery river. I was forced to confess that 
Yosemite was not exceptional in its greatness. The Kings Canyon 
curves but little, so that the view is unobstructed, and you are 
reminded often of Inspiration Point. The great precipices of 
naked granite slope away at a high angle, and the fine wide 
meadows, the scattering groves of pine and cedar, the dashing 
and turbulent river, with dark depths and placid green pools and 
roaring white cascades, and the lofty and forested mountain 
slopes back of the canyon walls, make an impressive picture. 
Save in places, the walls are not so sheer and so continuous as 
in Yosemite, and the magnificent waterfalls are lacking, but 
the Canyon itself is vaster, and if the streams and falls, the 
canyons and mountain peaks immediately adjacent be included, 
the region is as interesting and attractive as Yosemite. Dr. David 
Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University, even says that 
Kings River Canyon "is bigger, wider, with higher walls which 
slope out of sight, and the mountains into which it rises are far 
wilder and more stupendous.." And the late Dr. Joseph Le Conte 
said the Kings River Canyon "belongs to the same type as 
Yosemite, i. e., a valley with vertical walls and a flat floor, as 
contrasted with the -iisual V-shaped valleys of mountains gen- 
erally. In Kings River the walls are equally high and equally 
vertical, and the floor similarly, though not equally flat." Else- 
where Dr. Le Conte says that "barring the wonderful water- 
falls," the view from the Grand Lookout "will compare well 
with that of Yosemite from Inspiration Point or Eagle Point. ' 

You approach the canyon through a wilder and more beau- 
tiful region. The scenery is a constant delight, the silent forest 
full of interest, and every summit as you climb out of the canyons 
is crowned with surprises. You are exploring ; it is a new coun- 
trv that lies before vou ; vo-u are with the first adventurous party 




Moiiiimciit 



in the primeval forest, and every mile has its charm, its revela- 
tions of tree and rock, of stream and canyon, and glimpses of 
far-ofif snowy summits, over seas of verdure. 

"Effort, and expectation, and desire — 
And something evermore about to he. 

keeps you alert, sustained, unwearied, until you stand at the 
(irand Outlook, and the great huge canyon lies at your feet. 
Climbing down the three-mile zigzag trail, during which you 
descend 3,300 feet, you have such glimpses of the meadows, the 
park -like trees, the shining river and the enclosing mighty 
walls that you forget how rugged the trail was in absorption 
of the glory of the vision that opens before you. 

Then the ride up the floor of the canyon — that splendid fur- 
row plowed by the glacier — through flowers and meadows, by 
lines of lateral moraines, among incense cedars and sugar pines, 
and beside smooth, hard granite walls lifted defiantly to the 
heavens 3,000 to 3,500 feet high, while the river, three times the 
volume of the Merced, shouts as if glad of its escape into sun- 
shine out of the dark canyons where it was born — what surprises 
the ride has. and what enjovment ! You must be a veteran of 



the inoLintains if you can make that journey for the hrst time 
without a tumult of emotion — or a crick in your neck from look- 
ing up. 

It is part of the sp-urious culture of today to be. or affect to 
be, proof against surprise, and to stifle emotion as a mark of 
crudeness, but happy the man who keeps fresh the founts ot 
feeling in the presence of great Nature. He will enjoy these 
vast solitudes, and not be ashamed if the very greatness and 
splendor of what he sees wrings a cry of admiring wonder from 
his lips. Dr. Le Conte, critical, scholarly, inured to scenes of 
grandeur in the mountains, says of his experiences in this region : 
"The trail becomes steeper and rougher, cascades and falls more 
frequent and more beautiful, and the scenery grander and more 
impressive, until finally as we approached the sunnnit I could 
not refrain from screaming with delight." 

Standing on the narrow shelf at the summit of Mt. Stanford, 
overlooking the canyon and 14,000 feet above the sea, Dr. Jordan 
once said : "I have never seen a more magnificent mountain pano- 
rama. I have seen the mountains of this continent from Alaska 
to Mexico, and I have tramped many mountain miles in the Alps 
but such a comprehensive view of mountain masses and peaks 
and amphitheaters and canyons, of all the details of mountain 
sculpture on the tremendous scale that we are looking on now, 
I have never before seen." 




ISast Lake, )icar Mt. Brewer. 




lUisf J'idcltc, Biibbs Creek 



This is the glory of the Kings Ri\er Canyon — its niagnihcent 
setting. It Hes eniloeclded in the grandest mountains — the very 
cuhiiinating summits of the Sierra. Here are the Californian 
Alps. Here, at the rim of the giant cliffs which enclose the 
secluded valley, "the mountains may be said to begin," and they 
sweep upward on both sides from 7,000 to 10,000 feet above the 
river. The dominating peaks of the Sierra are closely cl-dstered 
here, the ridges are densely forested ; there are countless clear 
trout streams flowing through green meadows ; glacial lakes, the 
"eyes of the landscape," are very numerous, while at the very 
crest of the mountain range we look over the wall into Nevada, 
(S.ooo feet below us, but only 10 miles away. The opulent western 
slope takes from 60 to 70 miles to climb up 14,000 feet; the 
eastern rock wall plunges abruptly down with a grade of 1,000 
feet to the mile. 

In this region Alt. Whitney is the highest peak, 14,552 feet; 
but Mt. Williamson is scarcely lower ( 14,448 feet) ; Mt. Tyndall's 
slender summit is 14,360 feet in the air; Mount Jordan is 14,275; 
the slender Milestone is about 14,000, and the great Kaweahs 
14,141, while Junction Peak, Crag Erics.son, Crag Reflection, Mt. 
I)rewcr, the I'niversity of California Peak and others are only a 
little short of 14,000 feet. To the north, along the main crest 



of the range, are Striped ^Mountain, 13^248; Split Mountain, 
14,146; Middle Palisade, 14.070; Mt. Sill, 14,176; Haeckel, 13,500; 
Darwin, 13,854; H-umphreys, 14,055 feet, and lesser peaks below 
the crest. Further west are Charybdis, 13,158; Scylla, 13,018, and 
Mt. Goddard, 13,602 feet, and unnamed groups of peaks which no 
foot has climbed. It is a wilderness of lofty summits — ^the Alps 
of a region that will one day be famous. 

From several of these great peaks Owens Valley, on the east 
of the range, can be seen, the farms appearing like squares on a 
checker board, and more than 10.000 feet down the town of 




Grand Sentinel, looking n[^ Kings Rii'cr. 




The TcJTipitc Dunie 



Ttidependence, Inyo County, appears in the midst of green alfalfa 
fields. The nearer foreground from almost any of the great 
summits of this region, is filled with savage chasms and a mighty 
array of snowy peaks and clear, emerald lakelets scattered all 
about, with here and there a glacier or a glacial meadow further 
down, and a foaming stream. The view from Alta Peak, a day's 
travel southward, I found full of interest, and to those who are 
equal to the harder climbing, the summits of Whitney or Tyndall 
or Mt. Stanford will show scenes of unparalleled grandeur. 
This, we repeat, is the setting in which Kings River Canvon 




Grand Sentinel, Kin^s River. 




The floor of the Canyon. 

is forever fixed — the scenic gold which holds the gem of the 
Southern Sierra. But how much this means will not be apparent 
until we have pointed out the excursions which can be made 
from the canyon, and until we have pointed out the canyon's 
great neighbors. 



THE GIANT FOREST 

The Sequoia National Park is the most extensive of the 
Forest Parks of California now under the protection of the 
United States Government. It consists of seven townships, 
bounded on the east by the high Sierra, on the north by Kings 
River, and on the south by Kern River, and it is guarded by a 
troop of cavalry. 

Elsewhere in the State the great trees exist in detached 
groups or small groves, but on this lower southern slope of the 
range, and below its highest peaks, they are growing in true 
forest form, being fairly continuous over an area of 8 or lo miles 
long by half as wide. This is the real Giant Forest, the only one 
in the world that in the fullest sense deserves the name. Yet 
the seq-uoia does not here grow apart, constituting a forest of its 
own ; it is found among the sugar and yellow pines, the red and 
silver firs, and the incense cedars, and walking through 
the silent aisles it is a joy to come upon a family of 
the Sequoias, the dark cinnamon brown or red of the fluted 
trunks in strong contrast with the gray of the pine trunks and 
the green of the foliage. 

From some high point on the trail you look over a sea of 
verdure, billowy, but silent, as the mountainous waves sink or 
rise with the undulations of the land, and in the vast expanse 
the eye quickly learns to locate the giants of the forest by their 
loftier stature, and the shape of the great rounded dome that 
swells above the green canopy, and to tell where the real forest 
of sequoias sweeps along ridges, rise out of the deep canyons, or 
camps on sunny plateaus. Mountaineers say there are more 
than 5,000 of these giants over 15 feet in diameter and from 200 
to 300 feet high, and many thousand more of lesser girth. It 
is indeed a forest of giants, dispersed over many miles and socia- 
bly growing with trees of shorter pedigree and less dignity. "The 
king of all the conifers of the world," John M-air says, and he 




Oil tJic Trail 




Cciirral Shcnnan, Giant Forest. 

describes them as extending across the basins of the Kaweaii 
and Tule rivers in noble forests, broken only by deep canyons. 
"Advancing southward, the giants become more and more irre- 
pressibly exuberant, heaving their massive crowns into the sky 
from every ridge and slope." It is a picture to be cherished by 
every lover of these great trees. If they are to survive on these 
sunny western mountains — if our descendants, 10,000 years hence, 
are to see them repeating their long history and displaying their 
majestic beauty on these lofty plateaus, and on the borders of 
these deep canyons, it will be because they arc "irrepressibly 

12 



exuberant" in this niagniticent forest, and resuvv themselves in the 
moister shadows and in the sunny openings, the tender youngling 
springing up beside the venerable patriarch, and platoons of 
saplings crowding up the slopes which the elders have deserted. 
It adds to one's joy in this forest to see these young Seq-aoias. 
Professor Asa Gray looked at the giants in Calaveras grove and 
said, "They will not hold their own ;" but the distinguished 
botanist never saw the Giant Forest, nor these "plantations of 
God'' renewing their youth over miles of splendid territory, and 
bidding fair for immortality here in "the most glorious and 




Giant I'orcsl 



JlS^THe KETTtE 




^vr THE GIANT FOREST AND VICINITY 

"Reproduced sir permission from map by prof j.n le conte.copvright isoo 



beautiful region of America," or he would not have sighed over 
the dearth of seedlings in the frequented and trampled grove. 

The older trees impress you with a sense of personality. 
They are so great as at times to be oppressive, and 
you creep about among them as an insect. At other times 
lliey stir your reverence, and without affectation you are ready 
to stand bare headed before thein and to abjure all shams and 
pretenses. They stir your imagination ; you pict-ure them dis- 
l)ersed, before the Age of Ice, over several continents, and after 
that long winter, surviving here alone on this California moun- 
tain side, and you wonder why in the Creation's scheme all the 
world, except California, should be left without an idea of what 
a tree may be — how great, how beautiful and stately in form, 
how unexampled in duration of life, and you think of the 



vigorous tree by your side as alive when the Master was born 
in Bethlehem, as tossing its green branches in the summer an- 
when Joseph was ruling Egypt, or exuberant with young life 
when Helen was carried away from Troy. The age of these 
trees is variously estimated at from 5,000 to 8,000 years. The 
average size of a full grown tree, favorably sit-uated, is given 




In the Giant Forest, 




The Hii^/i Sicn-a from Moiiiii Rixford. 

by Mr. Mnir as 275 feet high and 29 feet diameter near the 
ground- Specimens 25 feet in diameter, he says, are not rare, 
and a few are nearly 300 feet high. "The largest I have yet met 
in my wanderings is a majestic old monument in the Kings 
River forest. It is 35 feet 8 inches in diameter inside the bark 
four feet from the ground." The shape of these trees is as strik- 




Trout lurk in the pools and rapids of Kings River. 




ing as their size. Look at them ! What grace, what prc^portion. 
what poise ! They taper slowly, and a limb rarely breaks out 
below 100 feet, and the great fluted pillar would adorn a temple 
of the gods. The instep of the tree is adjusted to its bulk, and 
is not excessive, and the tree stands squarely over its own center 
of gravity. The foliage is scanty. A tree that must lift its head 











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300 — in a few cases 325 and even 375 — feet in the air, and wrestle 
with the storms of 5,000 3'ears, cannot carry full sail. The root 
system is not extensive, and does not penetrate deeply. It is not 
sufficient to account for the wonderful growth of the tree, which 
is believed to feed upon the air through the papery lamination 
of its bark. The bark is often thick, but excessively so only in 
the case of a few trees. I have met one familiar with the Giant 
Forest who thinks that a distinct variety of the Sequoia bears 
thick bark, and of many examined I have found none where 
the bark approximated two f^et. A large proportion show bark but 
five or six inches thick. The specimens exhibited in curio 
stores are exceptional. The sequoia's cousin, or nearest rela- 
tive, is the S. sempervirens or redwood of the Coast. A tree 
of more distant kinship is the swamp cypress of the Southern 
Atlantic Coast, itself also a survival of the glacial age, and the 
only other surviving relative is the Glyptostrobiis of China, a 
modified form of the cypress (taxodium) . 

It is not easy to account for the survival of the Big Trees on 
this western slope of the Sierras, but this is certain ; they are 
connoisseurs of climate, and grow where it is neither cold nor 
hot, but in a mid-region, where sunshine is abundant, but tem- 
pered by elevation, and where the cold of winter is modified by 
proximity to the valley, and where the snow when it falls is 
both mantle and moisture. You can confidently make a summer 
camp where the sequoia grows, for the climate is simply ideal, 
while the forest is open and sunny, never damp or with a musiy 
odor of decay. It is a country fashioned so magnificently, painted 
so vividly, watered so abundantly, its scenery so commanding 
and beautiful, its primeval fastnesses so little disturbed, and its 
climate so nearly perfect, as to make it an ideal place for a 
vacation for those who enjoy nature in her own wild gardens. 
The whole region — the canyon and the forest — is destined to 
become as famous in its way as the better known Yosemite 
Valley, with a wider range of interesting points accessible from 
a central camp. 




Siiiiiusi I'll Bryanthus Lake. 




Misl I'alls. 



Roariiiii Rii'i'r I'ulls. 



KERN RIVER CANYON 

In some respects this is the greatest of the mountain canyons. 
It is full 30 miles in length, and its cliffs are precipi 
tons and many colored. It is separated from Kings River Canyon 
by what is known as the Kings-Kern Divide, a sharp, narrow, 
irregular crest as high as the main Sierra, from which it turns 
at right angles to the west. In it are some of the highest peaks 
of the range. The route may be left undescribed, and subject to 
choice; you may go from Copper Creek Camp or from Camp 
Sierra in the Great Forest. Either of the two routes 
available will have many perpendicular miles, and a very surfeit 
of wild scenery. 

Professor J. S. Hittell, who went from the Giant Forest by 
way of INIineral King and Farewell Gap, says : "I never before 
saw such scenery and magnificent mountain landscapes as I wit- 
nessed on this trip. They probably equal in rugged beauty any- 
thing of the kind in the world." 

The floor of the canyon is made up of forest and meadow, 
and the clear, cold river rushes between walls from 3,000 to 6,000 
feet high. The stream is alive with gamey trout, untroubled save 
by a few adventurous fishermen. Here, in what is known as 
Whitney Creek, is the original home of the golden trout. Did 
you ever catch one, and in an ecstacy of enjoyment of its beauty 
lay It tenderly on the grass to note its brilliant golden glow in 
the sunshine? 

In upper Kern Lake will also be found gamey trout of 
large size. They are supposed to. live well, as they scorn de- 
ceptive lures and will rise only to a real grasshopper. 

The lower lake has warmer water, in which one may 
swim delectably, may paddle among the lily-pads in an old 
dug-out, or from the divide between the two lakes, feast his 
eyes on pictures which w^ould delight an artist. It is said 




Oil Trail to Brxaiithus Tjikr and Mf. Brcivcr. 



that William Keith found little to tempt his brush in all the 
High Sierra country until he came into Kern Canyon. The 
canyon walls, the dark pine, waving willow and sedgy margin 
of this blue mountain lake he has interpreted nobly. 

At the head of the canyon the river rushes in broad sweeps 
over an inclined granite wall, while ten miles below two cascad- 
ing creeks come in, one from the southerly side of Mt. Whitney, 
the other from the glaciers -under the Kaweah peaks. Up the 
latter are found falls, cascades, rock-bound lakes and glacier- 
polished slopes — all very interesting and impressive. 

Mt. Whitney may be reached and climbed from Kern Can- 
yon, though the route leads through some rugged country. 

Whitney was long regarded as the summit of the conti- 
nent, but later measurements have reduced the height credited 
to this peak. Clarence King describes Mt. Whitney as "spring- 
ing up and out like the prow of a sharp ocean steamer," and 
the Sierras here as "a bold wall, crowned by sharp turrets 
having a tendency to lean o-nt over the eastern gulf." If the 
right point of attack is chosen, the great peak is easily climb- 
ed, and once upon the top the toil upward is gloriously re- 
warded. Save to the west where the great Western Divide 
closes the prospect, the view is magnificent. We have an- 
other and clear impression of the difference between the two 
sides of the Sierra. On the west a long slope of more than 
forty miles in a direct line merging in the foothills of the 
San Joaquin; eastward, lower mountains, but no foothills. 
Below the rim of Whitney, a vast precipice, then a leap of 
ridge and canyon, and sight drops away ten thousand feet to 
Owens River Valley. Northwest you can see Mt. Williamson 
and beyond Mt. Brewer and its great compeers of the Kings 
River country, and still beyond the great bulk of Mt. God- 
dard. 



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Floor of Kings River Canyon. 

The return journey may take you down the Kern Can- 
yon, a homeHke place after the desolation of the summit- 
world. For, while the walls are of incredible height and their 
polishing tells of ancient glaciers, the canyon floor is beauti- 
fully forested, and the river is companionable and rich in 
pictures which we can but enjoy and must carry away with 
us as abiding souvenirs. 

Some Interesting Neighbors 

If you go by way of Millwood you will first reach the 
General Grant National Park, small but containing 
125 great trees, the largest of which is called General Grant. 
You will note its great size as indicated by the 40-foot board fas- 
tened across its front. Above the great cypress-like knees, how- 
ever, the body of the trunk is symmetrical and measures about 
90 feet in circumference. On the trail via Boulder Creek you 
will find another group of Big Trees, and will note one standing 
dead from base to crown — the only instance known of a Sequoia 
dying a natural death. They do not die, nor even decay as other 
trees. Fallen, they waste away for what seems easily a thousand 
years, and living they are not the prey of insects nor the victims 
of disease. This tree has plainly starved to death. In the rocky 
ravine where it stands it found inadequate soil and moisture, 
and perished, the white trunk and bare limbs looking like a 
skeleton tree, but standing erect as a soldier sal-ating, and keep- 
ing in death a pathetic dignity of its own. 

The objective point will be a camp in the canyon, your own, 
or the camp established at Copper Creek, and where you may 
sleep under the stars and have your trout fried by Mrr>. 
Kanawyer in pure olive oil. Over against you will be the Grand 

23 




Junction Mcadozv. 



Sentinel a majestic granite rock splendidly colored and 3,50.3 
feet high, with the river singing at its base, and the view up or 
down the canyon one to stir a poet or an artist. 

From Copper Creek as a base of supplies various 
excursions can be made, some on foot in a few hours, some on 
horseback requiring days. Thus you may explore the recesses 
of Paradise Canyon as far as Mist Falls, or visit Roaring River 
Pool for a delightful view and a good catch of trout. The stream 
in the one case tumbles over a series of inclines, and in the 
other excitedly plunges through an opening in the solid rock 
into a wide green pool. Roaring River comes into the canyon 
about half way from the lower end to the camp, and its course 
is marked on the maps, "Impassable Gorge." What Mr. Muir 
calls "booming cascades" must be in that gorge, a good sized 
river getting down over 3,000 feet without ever once being 
shaken "loose and free in the air to complete the glory of this 
grandest of Yosemites." 

PARADISE This is made by Kings River as it come.A 

down from the north, beating its way for 
CANYON miles in a chain of cascades and falls, roar- 

ing, tossing, surging, filling the canyon with its tumult. The 
walls rise from 3,000 to 5,000 feet, and about 8 miles up stand 
back and make room for charming meadows and gravelly flats. 
It is a place of great solitude, but the meadow, one grand 
waterfall and several smaller ones makes the solitude musical. 
BUBBS Leaving Paradise Canyon on the left, we may 

go up Bubbs Creek for a long excursion. It is 
CREEK ^ trail often rugged, and keeps close to a creek 

full of big fishing pools, falls and cascades, and the music 
of the tumbling white torrent that has worn its way into 
the heart of the granite rocks. The trail leads to Kearsarge 
Pass, where the mighty continental divide is thrust up to 
an elevation of 12,056 feet at its lowest point, a score of sharp 



24 



peaks cutting the sky line far above the pass, while between 
rush the streams or gleam the icy lakes born of storms and 
snows and glaciers. Vidette Meadow is a beautiful camping 
place overlooked by two splendid peaks, North and South 
Vidette. A glorious place is Lake Bryanthus, where the moun- 
tain splendor seems to culminate. Here the view of Mt. Brewer 
is magnificent, while the fine outlines of East and West Videttes, 
the pinnacled and splintered peaks of Kearsarge, the conical and 
symmetrical form of University Peak, the huge bulk of Stanford 
and the loftier summit of Mt. Keith, Charlotte Peak with Char- 
lotte Lake at its foot — all are embraced in the view. 

Kearsarge Pass is two miles beyond Lake Bryanthus, the 
highest of all the Sierra passes. It is the sharp edge of the 
mountain range — the rocky backbone of the Sierras, so narrow- 
that your horse strides it standing on both sides of the range 
at once. It is worth the long climb to stand here on this divid- 
ing ridge and look down the steep eastern wall to where Owens 
Valley lies spread out like a map, while around you tower the 
great mountain masses with sharp peaks, the summit crests of 
the continent, full of an awful fascination. 
TcuiDi-TP 'I'l^is will well repay a visit. It is on the 

I tMiKM t Middle Fork of the Kings River, and the trip 

VALLEY ^yiji require from three to five days. The 

valley is the Yosemite of the Middle Fork, and is about three 
miles long, with walls from 2,500 to 4,000 feet high. Several small 
cascades spring from a great height and sing and shine on the 




rini'crsily rcak, beyond Lake Bryanthus. 




Camping in Cedar Grove. 

canyon walls, one seen from the front seeming a nearly con- 
tinuous fall about 2,000 feet high. A grander fall is called 
Tehipite, and is about T.800 feet high, the last plunge being 
oxer a sheer precipice 400 feet into a beautiful pool. 

Tehipite Dome and Tehipite Pinnacles are worth traveling 
far to see, while the journey there is through the bewildering 
scenery of the High Sierra. The sunny valley retains all its 
wild simplicity and is enchantingly beautiful. 

In and Around the Giant Forest 

The excursion to the forest may be taken from Kings River 
on the way home, or Camp Sierra in the midst of the great trees 
may be a point of departure for many delightful days. Here the 
party or the individual may be equally at home, and excursions 
may be made on foot or by the pack and saddle train with a 
guide. The trails are numerous and easily trodden, and will lend 
themselves to solitary enjoyment, if one wishes to be alone 
among these giants of other ages. The tallest tree in the forest 
is said to measure 340 feet. We measured one fallen tree, which 
spans beautiful Crescent Meadow, and estimating the length of 
the top, which was gone, made it 310 feet. We measured the 
"Gen. Sherman" beside the trail and found it 80 ft. in girth eight 
feet above^ the ground. We called attention to the fact that 
"Roosevelt" was not a very large tree. A colored trooper, who 
stood by, instantly said : "But the tree is young. It will grow. ' 

The trails are marked by these great fluted columns, alive in 
every twig and fibre, and the oldest apparently good for some 
thousands of years yet to come. 

26 



Moro Ruck, CresceiU Meadow, the Sherniaii Ircc, tlie Marble 
Fork of the Kaweah, and Sunset Rock are favorite short excur- 
sions. A picnic on Moro Rock, with its perpendicular face of 
2,000 feet, is an easy tramp by a charming trail. From Sunset 
Rock may be seen the Marble Canyon, the San Joaquin Valley 
and the Coast Range faintly outlined. In the Marble Fork you 
will find yourself looking straight down the vertical face of rocks 
into emerald pools you cannot reach with your longest lines. A 
longer excursion will take you to Alta Meadows, and the feeblest 
can climb Alta Peak, 11,522 feet. From its summit we enjoyed 
a splendid panorama of peaks and canyons. Few of the higher 
peaks offer a wider range of vision. The meadows, with grass 
and flowers, good water and a group of trees under which to 
camp, are immediately at the foot of the peak, and you pluck 
a bouquet of flowers as you go up in August, and on the summit 
take a hand at snow-balling with the zest of other days. 

Other excursions are to Kern Canyon, the trail over Farewell 
Gap in plain sight from Alta Meadows, and to Kings Canyon 
and home by Grant National Park, if you like. It is an enchant 
ing region, and from the camp as a base you may spend the 
summer without a dull day. 

The Way to the Giant Forest 

GIANT ^■'' ^'^"^i^^icd by Broder and Hopping's Stage line 

from Lemon Cove Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sat- 
FOREST -urdays. A hotel at Lemon Cove provides for the 

flrst night. The mountain road is one of the best in the State, 
and hugging the north hillsides has much coolness and shade 
under oaks and maples, the last twelve miles being in the pines. 
There is no trail riding or packing on the way, the stages going 
at once into Camp Sierra at Round Meadow over the Government 
road. Then you are shut in by such a forest as can be seen no- 
where else in the world. 




Lake Charlottt 




MUCKlESEOBV,- 
VAL LEV / M 



RATTLESNAKE SPR. 



NATIONAL ; / 

^PARK I ( 

.ES"EqU0iA ' / 




SOLDIERS' CAHI 



Broder and Hopping's Camp in the Giant Forest, known as 
Camp Sierra, has 10x12 tents, with floors, spring cots and 
comfortable furnishings, a good kitchen and large tent dining 
room. A clear stream of cold water runs through the camp, 
and the Big Trees stand all abo-iit the grounds. At night a large 
camp-fire is made under the trees, and seats provided for guests. 
A good table is set, and the place is made as home-like as possi- 
ble, while having the freedom of out of doors. Mail is carried 
on ever}^ stage, and the stages land passengers directly in the 
camp. Picnic and excursion parties are amply provisioned. The 
guides are competent cooks, and blankets are provided for camp- 
ing out. Good food, cleanliness and comfort are aimed at. Rates 
at Camp Sierra are $2.00 per day, or $50.00 per month. Improve- 
ments will be made each season, and the needs and comforts of 
guests carefully looked after. Located in the midst of the great- 
est forest in the world, the grandeur of the trees, the mountains 
and canyons, the beauty of the meadows, the wild gardens and 
flowers offer attractions hard to equal. 

The carpet of brown pine needles, the sparkling mountain 
streams, the clear vistas, notable for absence of underbrush, the 
marvelous climate, the exhilarating atmosphere of these 6,000 
feet of altitude, make the camps in 
world a summer paradise. 

Sleeping o-ut of doors is a new 
pleasant experience to the amateur, 
ing, breathing fragrant, soothing balms and the smell of the 
spruce pine, while, 

"l>u])l)le, bubble flows the stream, 
lyikc an old tunc through a dream." 

The "Flier," leaving San Francisco at 8:20 a. m., arrives in 
Exeter at 5:16 p. m., connecting with the train for Lemon Cove. 
Sto]) is made o\-cr night at Lemon Cove ?Totel. 

28 



tlie greatest wood of the 

pleasure to many, and a 
One lies drowsing, listen- 




• 61AN7 FOBEST REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION FROM MAP BV PHOFJ.N.LE CONTE, COPYRIGHT 1900 



pAUTMtO PK. 



KING'S RIVER CANON 

«HOfWING TRAIlr PROM THE GIANT FOREST 



Stage Schedule between Lemon Cove and Giant forest ( Camp Sierra ) 

Leave Lemon Cove at 6 :30 a. m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays 
and Saturdays. Arrive Giant Forest at 6:00 p. m. the same day. 

Leave Giant Forest at 6 :oo a. m. on Mondays, Wednesdays 
and Saturdays. Arrive Lemon Cove at 3 140 p. m. 

Stage from Lemon Cove to . Giant Forest $6.50. Round 
Trip $12.00. 

Tickets can be had at Ferry Building-, San Francisco, for 
round trip to Giant Forest, three days in the forest at Camp 

29 



Sierra, hotel accommodations, transportation, etc.. with no fnrlher 
expense — ^a seven-day trip for $35.50. 

Broder and Hopping mountain pack trains at Camp Sierra 
and well equipped riding and |)ack animals with guide, packer, 
cook, provisions, bedding, etc.. can always be arranged for. From 
this Camp they will pilot you to Kings River Canyon. The trail 
leads you past the famo'us Big Tree, Gen. Sherman, through 
two and one-half miles of Sequoias, across the beautiful Marble 
Fork on a graded Government trail and through many beautiful 
meadows in full sight of Mt. Silliman. At noon a panorama 
of the High Sierra is spread before yen. Mt. Brewer, Mt. King, 
Milestone, Table Mountain and many others, while blue and dim 
below yC'U trail the depths of the Kings River Canyon. Eighteen 
miles from Camp Sierra brings you to Horse Corral Meadow 
where camp is made for the night. From this point the seven 
miles into the canyon is over the same trail as that from Mill- 
wood. 

Detailed information can be secured by addressing Broder 
and Hopping, Kaweah. California. 

The Way to Kings River Canyon 

Kings River Canyon is reached by the Kings River Stage 
and Transportation Company from Sanger or Visalia. R. H. 
Gallagher is manager. The Southern Pacific will drop you at 
Sanger or Visalia ; you will stop over night at a comfortable 
hotel, and early iiext morning will leave on the Kings River 
stage. It is a forty-five mile drive from Sanger to Sequoia Lake, 
and fifty from Visalia, but the route is interesting and the 
jc-urney easily made between 6:00 a. m. and 5:30 p. m. 

A "Tent City" at Sequoia Lake provides accommodations, 
and after a night's rest, saddle horses and the pack trains await 
you, with Copper Creek as the objective point. The route takes 
you at once into Grant National Park, where stand many fine 
Sequoias and where lies the famous tree through which you 
can ride on horse-back, emerging at a knot hole. We found a 
full sized bed standing across the diameter of this fallen tree, 
and rode past the foot of the bed without difficulty. This tree 
is much decayed and has evidently been down for centuries. 
The Park is a wild garden and at its upper line the reason for 
this protected area is seen in the waste and ruin of the forest 
by millmen. 

The first day by the trail takes you to Horse Corral and by 
4:30 p. m. next day you are in camp at Copper Creek in the 
heart of the Canyon. The trail can be taken by any good walker, 
or managed on the back of sure-footed horses by those who are 
not robust. Tt is not a rough ride; the scenery is a constant 
delight, the silent forest full of surprises, and the camp the 

.^0 




Caiiil' oil Boulder Creek. 

first night out under the pines, on the edge of a charming mea- 
dow, with sweet, cool water trickling through the grass, will 
be remembered for its appetite and its refreshing sleep. An ap- 
propriation was made by the last legislature to build a road to 
the canyon. 

Daily Schedule between Sanger and Sequoia Lake 

( SEASON , M A Y-OCTOBER. ) 

Lv. Sanger 6 :oo a. m. 

Ar. Dunlop's (lunch) 12 ;oc m. 

Ar. Sequoia Lake 5 :30 p. m. 

Lv. Sequoia Lake 7 :oo a. m. 

Sweets (lunch) 12 :20 p. m. 

Ar. Sanger 4 :oo p. m. 

Daily Schedule between Visalia and Sequoia Lake 

Lv. Visalia 6 :oo a. m. 

Camp Badger ( lunch ) . . i 130 p. m. 

Ar. Sequoia Lake 5 :30 P- m. 

Lv. Sequoia Lake 6 130 a. m. 

Ar. Auckland (lunch) 11 :30 a. m. 

Ar. Visalia 4 :oo p. m. 

The rate from San Francisco to General Grant National Park 
and return is $19.40; and from San Francisco to Copper Creek 
and return is $26.00. 

The uniform rate for meals after leaving Sanger or Visalia 
is fifty cents, save where a rate is secured by the week or month 
or for the trip. Camp rate, including meals, at Sequoia Lake is 
$2.00 per day, but lower rates are made for guests remaining for 
any length of time. 

For parties desiring to camp out in the Canyon, transporta- 
tion of persons and camping outfit will lie provided from Sequoia 

31 



Lake lo Copper Creek and return for $7.00; a (kiy and a iiall 
going, and a day and a half returning. Additional transportation 
will be provided at the rate of $2.50 a day, including meals and 
camp, to any part of the region, the hire of guide will be extra 
as noted. Special rates will be made for large parties. 

Part of the comfort of such a trip as we have outlined, is thai 
everything is provided. You take but your personal belongings, 
and on the stage, on the trail, at the camps — everywhere you are 
amply and fully furnished. Food is abundant and well cooked, 
extra blankets are at hand, horses are gentle, and every want is 
anticipated. You need only take your satchel as for a railway 
journey. The Tehipite sheet of the United States Geological 
Survey's atlas will be found very valuable and costs but five 
cents. Prof. J. N. Le Conte, of the University of California. 
has also mapped this region in great detail. 

Seats in the stage from Sanger or Visalia will be reserved, 
and further information furnished upon application to any agent 
of the Southern Pacific, or to R. H. Gallagher, Manager Kings 
River S. & T. Company, Sanger, Cal. 

The heart of the Sierra holds nothing more attractive than 
the great gorge of the Kings River, the Kern River, and the 
Grand Forest. For a midsummer outing it offers more beauty 
of landscape, more variety of rock sculpture, more sublimity of 
canyon walls and mountain peak and cliff, more fascination of 
forest and meadow and glacial lake, and more enjoyment for the 
sportsman in trout pools and streams of almost virgin water, 
more beauty of the wild and aboriginal than ciny other section 
of the great Range. 

The fine photographs used in illustration of this booklet 
were taken by Messrs. H. C. Tibbitts and Edward T. Parsons. 

Questions will be answered and more specific information 
given by Agents of the Southern Pacific at Visalia and Sanger, 
or by the Information Bureau, Ferry Building, San Francisco. 

Index. 



Page. 

Bubbs Creek 21 

Camn Sierra ^^ '^■^ 


Page. 

Mountain Elevations. . .6, 7 


Gen. Grant Nat'l Park.. 19 

(liant Forest 13, 26 

Interesting Neighbors. . 23 
Kern River Canyon. ... 21 

Kings River 


Sequoia National Park it 
Stage Schedules 31 


Tehipite Vallev 26 

Way There, The.... 28, 30 
Canyon .... 3 



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